Plastic carrier bags - Shock horror, I'm not against them

[mumtosam]

I'd love to agree with the current line of thought that they're evil but I don't. So before we get rid of them / tax them to oblivion has anyone come up with a half decent alternative.

I'm happy to recycle - what the difference to me which dustbin I put my rubbish in.

My driving is enviromentally friendly -I drive a hybrid vehicle and walk plenty.

I reuse my carrier bags at home as bin liners so don't have any to take with me to the shops.

So please tell me why I should start paying 5-10p a bag.

And when they charge for the bags they will reduce the prices of bread etc... oh wait! no they wont' lol

My big bins are next to my back door, any kitchen waste is scraped straight into it.

We don't have any bins anywhere in our house.

Of course they won't. I just wanted to point out that they were never actually free to begin with.

bought lovely pink string bag in M&S yesterday. holds a helluvalotmore than a plastic one

I've just been thinking about the possibility of having no kitchen bin. Once I start composting that means all wet stuff will be taken care of so a normal waste bin will probably be ok for crisp packets and other dry stuff. Hmmmm will think about this more.

Do you ever eat tinned fish, wth? Where do you put the empty tins?

It's great not to have to ever empty a bin.
Also keeps the house tidier because the DC's have been trained that recycling goes in blue bin, other stuff in green bin and do it automatically.

bundle, I linked to turtle string bags earlier - I think we should all buy several (maybe MN can do a clickthrough...???)

I will suggest!

So since they were never actually free to begin with when they start charging that will be pure profit and of course it will go to charity because this is NOT about making money out of you.

How old are your DC, VS?

(Mine used to follow rules when they were little - hopeless now - if we had no bins the whole house would be a litter bin )

I think that as shops are going to charge now they should be charged for the amount they make by the government.
At least then they would do more to stop people buying them rather than just make new reusable bags.
In my little tesco metro everything you buy is automatically put in a bag by the till person, whereas at the co-op it is put back in your basket and you bag it yourself, IMO tesco is therefore encouraging people to use bags.

7 and 3.
TBH they don't have anything that creates litter so it isn't an issue.

Wendy - we RECYCLE all our tins

Look between the cushions on your sofa, VS - that's where all the litter will be

wendyweber, it looks just likes teh pink one - except it cost £3 and not £4.50

(oh and the M&S one has long AND short handles on it..)

Isn't your outside wheely bin minging, VS -- esp. if it's next 2 ur backdoor. How do stand the smell or how do u clean it? Doesn't cleaning it use resources, too?

I rarely need bags in shops (try hard to avoid). Instead, I re-use every plastic bag that comes my way... and I manage to double wrap rubbish so the wheely bin is not dirty or worse than vaguely smelly. Never had to clean the rubbish wheely bin in almost 4 years.

lol at scienceteacher. So true

Lol, no it's not minging and doesn't smell, it hardly takes any effort to clean it at all tbh. I assume people clean the bins inside their houses?
And even if I had bins inside I'd still want to clean my outside bins incase of spillages etc.

ScienceTeacher, nope, nothing in between the cushions!
I really can't think of anything they have that creates any litter.

They will.......

On the subject of plastic bags and wildlife, did anyone see News24 last night? Look at Midway.

But are the M&S ones ethically bought and traded, bundle?

Like what though wendy?
I mean any sweets or w/e they have to eat at the table then clear the table so rubbish goes straight in the bin. That's the only thing I can think of that they create rubbish with.

Trying to think what rubbish we actually have all I can think of is food packaging, most of which is recyclable or leftovers, which there are rarely any of!

pageturner - this is what makes me very with the BBC atm. They bang on about placky bags every other day - send a reporter to the middle of the pacific to tell us why placky bags are a menace, and the actual report never even mentions them (it was about toothbrushes, iirc - so stop brushing your teeth, ladies.)

The Irish charge is a tax, which is supposed to be used for environmental things. We also have to pay an tax on all electrical goods, even little ipods, for recycling. The downside is my collection of big paper bags, which are issued free with clothes. They are strong and expensive looking, but not strong enough for groceries and get soggy if wet.